Sonnini de Manoncourt, Charles Nicolas Sigisbert: Travels in upper and lower Egypt (Band 1) (London, 1807)

and lower eg\pt.

CHAP. III.

Departure from Toulon—Come to an anchor—Coast
of Corsica—Ge?ioa—The Opera—Elba and the
adjacent islands—Gale of tvind—Arrival at Par
lermo.

At ten o'clock of the evening of April 26th,
1777, the frigate Atalanta, one of the finest in
the French navy, set sail from the road of Toulon.
She was under the command of M. Durfort; her
crew consisted of near three hundred seamen, and
she mounted thirty-two cannon. Some persons
from Versailles, Monsieur and Madame Tcsse,
M. d'Ayen, M.Meung, had ohtained permission to
embark with us, and were to be carried to Palermo,
to Malta and Syracuse. These persons were for-
merlydenominatcd the Great; but they had divested
themselves of the pride of courts, and were become
very agreeable people. Madame Tesse, one of the
wittiest women of her day, gave the tone to this
little colony of courtiers; and the politeness, the
frank and graceful probity of the commander, the
select character of the other officers, rendered the
company on board the Atalanta, the most amiable
society that can be imagined, and such as could
hardly be expected at sea. M. Tott, for his part,

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